My Story

Photo of Jasdeep Khalsa

Jasdeep Khalsa MBE is a full-time software manager at DAZN, founder of the sustainable software agency Akal Software, published author & poet, musician, qualified psychotherapist and a philanthropist:

Jasdeep is also an advocate of meditation, sustainability, vegetarianism and a charismatic speaker around self improvement, technology and business.

In his professional capacity he is currently a software team lead manager with 10+ years of experience specialising in front-end web development and web-based software.

Currently he is working for DAZN, known as the ‘Netflix for Sports’, leading a team of 8 and line managing 3-4 developers working to develop and maintain the video player across web and living room devices.

Releases from his team regularly improve the viewing experience for 15 million customers watching sports on 130M+ devices in 200 countries and territories worldwide.

DAZN Group is currently owned by UK’s richest man, Sir Len Blavatnik via his privately-held industrial group Access Industries which owns other companies like Deezer and Warner Music Group.

Previously, he has worked at companies large and small such as Sparx, Lloyds Banking Group, Wunderman Commerce, Adobe, YouView, Virgin Media and 3M, to name a few.

Jasdeep’s contributions regularly leave a lasting impact, for example during his time at YouView some of the features he developed working in agile teams included a programme guide, setup and settings menus launched to over 2.5m BT & TalkTalk customers.

Whilst at Lloyds Banking Group’s payments division, a new payment flow he helped implement is still today live within Lloyds, Halifax and Bank of Scotland bank accounts for 30M+ customers & in-branch colleagues in 1500+ branches.

Jasdeep has a BSc in Management and Strategy from Aston Business School, and at the same time wanted to become a counsellor to help others, so completed a Diploma in Hypnotherapy and Counselling Skills (Dip Hyp CS) and an Integrated Professional Diploma in Psychotherapeutic Counselling (Dip PC) from Chrysalis.

He has completed various leadership training from Dale Carnegie, Landmark Education and Faith In Leadership, and is also a long-term practitioner of meditation.

He has published four books on practical spiritual poetry and philosophy, and written over 500 articles on personal growth and well-being on his former blog, The Divine Within.

Born to a working-class family, Jasdeep and his siblings grew up with very little in terms of wealth but that taught them the ethic of working hard in order to achieve.

As a result, Jasdeep excelled in all his subjects at school, but took a particular interest in business, technology, philosophy and religion.

Outside of school, Jasdeep would get involved in various charitable and enterprising projects to help serve others and his local community.

In 2001, at the age of 13 he co-founded his first organisation called the Derby Sikh Young Youth Association, whose parent organisation was the Derby Sikh Youth Association, a government funded not-for-profit community organisation offering a free monthly newsletter, women’s aerobics classes, discussions forums, a homework club for kids, information leaflets on Sikhism, and working in conjunction with government organisations to bring about positive change to young people.

In 2004, at just 16 years of age he founded The Sikher Project with the aim to translate and transliterate the Sikh Holy Scripture, the Shri Guru Granth Sahib Ji, into multiple languages and language scripts. The project created a database of 53 translations and 22 transliterations using custom built software by investing £3,000 of personal money and putting in 19,000 hours of time over 14 years.

Sikher was visited 100,000 times and its database downloaded over 17K times, which for the first time in history gave diverse Sikh and non-Sikh communities around the world access to the universal Sikh teachings in a language they can understand and read.

The project also revolutionised Sikh software in general, being the first cross-platform and cloud-based open source project offering its code and data for free to anyone to contribute, modify and use in their respective projects licenced under the GNU General Public License (GPL) and Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License (and other open source licenses).

Over the years, several projects adopted Sikher’s open philosophy, database or code to build apps including Joti Software, KhojGurbani, iGurbani, SearchGurbani and notably SikhiToTheMAX by the Khalis Foundation, which are used in hundreds of Gurdwaras across the world to display the Sikh scriptures.

Another offshoot open source project which came out of the Sikher project is called DBDiff which helps compare MySQL databases for differences and has had over 100,000 downloads to date.

From the age of 18, whilst a student at Aston University, Jasdeep underwent a process of intense self development through the practice of Kundalini Yoga and meditation, considered to be the most powerful of all yoga practices, and originally taught secretly only to Kings and Queens of royal descent. This caused his way of thinking and seeing the world to change dramatically.

His personal transformation was compounded by formidable teachers and mentors who guided him at each stage of his personal growth, numerous personal development courses which he went on (see the full list of Jasdeep’s recommended courses here), and various spiritual masters he went to see.

His experiences and insights from this process form the basis of several books available via Amazon.

Since 2010 his services to a wide range of charities has been commendable, particularly as the co-founder and former Executive Board Member of the City Sikhs Network, a former trustee of the Guru Ram Das Project charity and former CFO and treasurer of 3HO Europe.

Throughout the years, Jasdeep also started to create relationships with several organisations of change and contribute to their efforts through collaborative projects and doing speeches, including BBC Radio, Connexions Derbyshire, Bright Futures, The Initiatives of Change, The School for Changemakers, Faith In Leadership, Third World Solidarity, Naz Legacy Foundation, Chinmaya Yuva Kendra (CHYK) and 3HO.

Also he voluntarily or professionally helped build websites or apps for several organisations including the Derby Sikh Youth Association, Satnam Network, Sikh Student Camp, Guru Ram Das Project, Our People’s Coach, Sikh Dating, LGBT Sikhs, Faiths Forum For London and Kundalini Yoga Teachers Association.

And he regularly donates to a number of charitable causes including The Trussell Trust, Guide Dogs For The Blind, Woodland Trust, RSPB, Save the Children, Operation Underground Railroad & Nirvana School in Pondicherry, India to name a few.

Jasdeep now believes that mastering one’s own mind, thoughts and feelings is the best foundation for a successful life, relationship and business:

“Personal development and meditation can often be a wishy washy subject, so I decided to only share techniques which work instantly, are very easy to apply and make a measurable, long-lasting impact to the quality of one’s life. Life can be a challenge, but if you have the correct tools and support, you can rise to the challenge and transcend it”.

Meditation is scientifically proven to also help improve levels of concentration and objectivity which are keys to success in both programming, which often involves long periods of focus, and in making sound business investments and decisions without getting emotionally attached.

“What’s important is not to chase money, but to chase creating value in the world, serving the world by solving its problems. Those who serve, money tends to follow them.”

“I still consider myself a beginner and every day I love to learn something new. I also keep myself down-to-earth and approachable, as you never know who may need your help”.

What Others Say

“Jas was an incredible mentor. He never just gave me the right answer but taught me how to think about the problem without letting me get frustrated. I learned a ton about how to build my designs and my coding skills were at the heart of how I was able to get started as a UX designer [web developer]”

— JT Grauke, UX Designer at Focus Lab, USA

“…Jasdeep was an invaluable mentor to have on my side. Jasdeep was exceptional at breaking down large concepts into small, achievable pieces to help me learn, and at imparting the problem solving skills required for me to step past my own blockers….his mentorship opened the doors for me to continue growing in the field, and nowadays I am a senior software engineer [web developer] in the New York City fintech industry, with an annual salary north of $150,000 [£115,000]”.

— Daisy, Senior Software Engineer at a Fintech, USA

“Thank you very much for all your efforts for us! It has been fantastic to work with you [Jasdeep]. I’ve really appreciated all your insights into Agile from working with other teams and your friendly and professional approach has made working remotely a success. I felt like we were a close and very productive team, and ended up with a really great product.”.

— James J, Principal Engineer at Sparx, UK

“Jasdeep is a friendly individual who inspires others to achieve their highest potential. This unique quality combined with Jasdeep’s ‘can do’ attitude and positive outlook truly compliment his hardworking nature.”.

— Salma S, Marketing Director at Worldpay, UK

“Jasdeep is one of the most optimistic people I have met. He has a passion and energy for life which is infectious. He is supportive, encouraging and grounded. He is able to simplify complicated matters into easy to understand process. He is a leader through and through and I have no hesitation in recommending his services as they are based on integrity, care and support.”.

— Mamta S, Director of Think Spa, UK

“Jasdeep is a bright, friendly and caring person…He puts others’ needs before himself and with a real passion for enhancing other people’s lives, I have no doubt he will be helpful to many people in need”

— Peter Kwok, Chairman at The UK Federation of Chinese Professionals (UKFCP), UK

“In my experience of working with Jasdeep I found him to be an extremely dignified individual who possesses profound expertise in his subject area and is alway\s able to convey information in the most coherent manner possible. He is an individual who invests greatly in his ability to understand, connect and establish rapport with his clients/colleagues and all in all I found my experience of working with Jasdeep a very enjoyable one. I would always recommend his services to anyone that wishes to develop and excel.”.

— Raj Kumar Bhardwaj, Data Quality Manager at Nomura, UK

“Jasdeep Khalsa is a very inspirational and enthusiastic individual. Jasdeep is a creative individual who is a pleasure to be around. His humble personality and great sense of humour make him a very special team player.”

— Bal Rai, Director at Cyber Management Alliance, UK

“Jasdeep is one of the most inspirational and goal orientated individuals that I have had the pleasure of meeting. He is always happy to help and goes out of his way for others. A great presenter full of witty charisma and talent.”

— Anita R, Business Analyst at Intel, UK



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